Saint Mary's College senior cross country student-athlete and Spring Lake native Brittany Beeler was named as the recipient of the 2017 Marvin Wood Outstanding Senior Athlete Award by the Department of Athletics.

The award is presented to the outstanding senior athlete of each graduating class.

An excerpt of the award citation reads:

She moved up in the conference and earned first team All-MIAA honors both her junior and senior seasons after being one of the top eight runners in the league. To cap it all off, she added two more All-Region honors, making her the only cross country Belle to earn All-Region honors three times in a career.

In her senior season, she clocked the second fastest 5k time by a Belle with an impressive 18:39. Her time falls only behind that of two-time national qualifier, Megan Gray. A week later, Brittany raced the second fastest 6k in program history with a time of 22:09, or the equivalent of 5:56 per mile pace.

Her name is all over the Saint Mary’s Cross Country record book. She holds three of the top eight 5k times and seven of the top eleven 6k times in program history. In fact, her five 6k times just from her senior season are among the top 10 fastest 6ks run by a Belle ever.

She is the daughter of Joe and Angie Beeler. She graduated last weekend with degrees in both biology and Spanish, while earning a chemistry minor. A week after graduation, she and her four senior teammates will run the Bayshore Marathon together, with their coaches. She plans to work and volunteer this next year before taking the MCAT and applying to medical school.